"Let no freedom be allowed to novelty, because it is not fitting that any addition should be made to antiquity. Let not the clear faith and belief of our forefathers be fouled by any muddy admixture."
-- Pope Sixtus III

Friday, January 06, 2012

When eight bizarrely big-headed soldier ants turned up in a wild colony collected from Long Island, N.Y., scientists knew they had found something interesting.

This discovery of these oversized versions of soldier ants, whose job is to defend the nest, led researchers to create their own supersoldier ants in the lab with the help of a hormone, and, by doing so, offer an explanation for how ants, and possibly other social insects, take on specific forms with dedicated jobs within their colonies.

It turns out these abnormal soldier ants were throwbacks to an ancestral state, one that no longer shows up within their species except, apparently, by accident. This phenomenon occasionally pops up elsewhere, in the form of whales bearing limbs their ancestors lost, chickens with teeth or humans with tails. [10 Vestigial Limbs & Organs]

"It's been known for a long time that these kinds of slips occur, and they are viewed as the Barnum and Bailey of evolution," said the study's senior researcher Ehad Abouheif, Canada research chair in evolutionary developmental biology at McGill University. "What we are showing for the first time is there is this ancestral potential sitting there, and when poked by the environment it can really unleash this potential that can power evolution."

Meet the supersoldiers

The species collected in New York, Pheidole morrisi, normally has two types of worker ants, according to Abouheif: minor workers, which are responsible for foraging, nursing, feeding eggs and larvae, and taking care of the queen; and soldier ants, which defend the nest and use their big mandibles to crack seeds harvested by the minor workers.

This species doesn't have supersoldiers, but the big-headed critters resembled the supersoldier ants occurring among eight species of ants found in the American Southwest and northern Mexico. All nine species belong to the genus Pheidole, which contains about 1,100 species.

So it made sense that the out-of-place supersoldiers could reveal something about the origin of supersoldiers among the eight other species.

Making a supersoldier

To find out, the researchers, led by Rajendhran Rajakumar, a doctoral student in Abouheif's lab, watched the development of supersoldier larvae from two of the eight species that normally produce them. (The researchers wanted to study the behavior of the P. morrisi they had collected, but they were killed in the lab by other ants.)

An ant's caste, or role in the colony, is determined by environmental switches, or periods during its larval development when it is receptive to certain environmental cues. Adult ants in the colony can manipulate these switches by, for instance, applying certain hormones called pheromones to the larvae.

In the first period of development, this switch determines whether the egg will become a queen or a worker and then another switch second determines whether the larva will become a soldier or a minor worker.

Just before the second switch, they applied a chemical that acts like juvenile hormone to the larvae of three species that do not produce supersoldiers. Juvenile hormone is involved in translating environmental cues, such as nutrition, into the identity of the larvae. By applying it artificially, the researchers not only pushed the larvae past the threshold at which they would normally become regular soldiers, but past a second threshold, one that is normally hidden, creating supersoldiers.

But these lab-created supersoldiers weren't perfect matches to the natural ones. As adults they retained little vestigial wings buds, something normal supersoldiers lose when they mature.

"The potential [to be supersoldiers] is there, but it is a little raw," Abouheif said.

The researchers also looked at the expression of a gene involved in the control of wing development, and found similarity between the lab-induced supersoldiers and the natural ones. They also found similar changes occurred in two different species of naturally occurring supersoldiers, this indicated both relied on the same developmental mechanism.

So why have supersoldiers?

The naturally occurring supersoldiers appear to have a defense function. These species live in the same areas as army ants, which attack their colonies. During a raid, the supersoldiers use their large heads to block the tunnels to their nests to keep the attackers out.

However, other species of Pheidole ants, those without supersoldiers, also live alongside army ants. One of the species in which the researchers induced the supersoldiers, P. hyatti, grabs its brood and climbs up stalks of grass to escape army ant raids.

Moreau suggests another reason the giant heads of the supersoldiers might come in handy: grinding seeds. Supersoldiers could grind larger seeds than regular soldiers, she said.

A mystery from the family tree

The findings could help to solve a mystery of the origin of such supersoldier ants. Past work by Corrie Moreau, an evolutionary biologist at the Field Museum in Chicago, who was not involved with this study, revealed that one of the supersoldier species is located near the base of the Pheidole family tree, closely related to the ancestral ant, while other supersoldier species were scattered within the tree.

There are two possible explanations for this arrangement: Either each of the species evolved different ways of creating supersoldiers, or the mechanism evolved with the earliest common ancestor about 35 million to 60 million years ago, according to Moreau.

The work of Abouheif's team points to the latter — that supersoldiers date back to the root of the family tree — and it reveals how supersoldiers are created.

The implications extend beyond ants, according to Moreau.

"The question becomes, 'Do all insects use a similar pathway as was found in the big-headed ants or is this something special to this group,'" she wrote in an email to LiveScience. "Regardless, it suggests that we should look for evolutionary conserved pathways across the tree of life."

Police say career criminal Exulam I. Holman gouged out his uncle’s eyes while the two men fought over a remote control New Year’s Eve in southwest suburban Joliet Township.

Will County Sheriff’s police were called shortly after 10 p.m. Saturday to a residence in the 1100 block of McKay Street in Joliet Township, where a 62-year-old man reported he’d been attacked.

A deputy was allowed inside and found the victim at the bottom of the basement stairs with his hands stretched out in front of him, saying, “Please help. I cannot see,” reports said.

The victim, whose name was not released, had “blood streaming from both eyeballs, covering his face below his eyes. Both of his eyeballs were swollen, dislocated and were protruding approximately a quarter-inch from the eye sockets,” police said.

The man told police he and his nephew, Holman, 32, had been arguing over the TV’s remote control. Both men live at the McKay Street home.

Holman broke the remote on the ground, pushed his uncle to the kitchen floor and straddled him. Holman is 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighs 280 pounds. His uncle is five inches shorter and weighs 140 pounds less.

The victim told deputies that Holman “inserted his thumbs into his eyes … and attempted to pry the eyeballs out of the sockets.”

Holman then allegedly pushed his uncle down the basement stairs.

Despite being in “excruciating” pain and losing consciousness, he was able to call 911.

A deputy found Holman in a locked bedroom and arrested him on a charge of aggravated domestic battery.

The victim was taken to Silver Cross Hospital and later transferred to the University of Illinois at Chicago Hospital for advanced care.

Sources reported he is now blind in his left eye and will require additional surgery for the limited vision in his right.

On Tuesday, Holman’s bond was set at $1 million.

Police report he has been arrested 25 times since 1999 for aggravated assault, aggravated battery, domestic battery, violating orders of protection, resisting arrest and numerous driving violations after previous convictions on weapons and narcotics charges.

In 1999, then-Joliet Officer Bernard Mooney allegedly beat Holman while breaking up a dice game in Joliet.

Holman received a $100,000 settlement after threatening to file a lawsuit over his broken nose, and Mooney was fired from the department.

The following summer, another officer allegedly found Holman passed out behind the wheel of a car running in the 1300 block of Woodruff Road in Joliet. When Holman woke up and was told he’d be arrested for driving under the influence, he put the car in gear and struck the police officer, causing minor injuries.

That buzzphrase has been the Republicans' way of referring to business owners who are supposedly hamstrung by overregulation and outdated economic policies that Obama has pursued over the last three years, including the controversial stimulus program from 2009. Obama himself is a "job killer" in the argot of leading Republicans like Mitt Romney and John Boehner. But Obama may have some persuasive facts at hand to help refute that claim come Election Day.

The latest unemployment report was modestly better than expected, with 200,000 new jobs added to the economy and a slight drop in the unemployment rate, to 8.5 percent. For once there was no need for caveats explaining that the seemingly good news actually masked more troubling signs deeper in the numbers. The economy has now added jobs every month since September 2010, and the pace of job gains appears to be accelerating. After many fits and starts, in other words, the economy may finally be strengthening in earnest.

There's almost no plausible scenario in which an Obama re-election in November would be a shoe-in. The unemployment rate on Election Day will probably still be above 8 percent, which would make Obama, if re-elected, the only president since the Depression to win a second term with such a high jobless rate. Housing will still be a mess and many middle-class Americans will feel they're worse off than they were four years earlier.

But if current trends continue, Obama will have some upbeat news to run on. The economy has already added about 2.7 million jobs since employment bottomed out at the beginning of 2010. If the economy keeps adding 200,000 jobs per month, on average, it would mean another 2 million new jobs by the time Election Day rolls around. That would allow Obama to say--accurately--that under his stewardship, the economy has added nearly 5 million new jobs over the last two years.

That could all happen with the unemployment rate going up, not down, as discouraged workers who had given up finding a job re-enter the workforce, creating a bigger pool of people technically counted as unemployed. Conventional wisdom holds that no president can get re-elected with such a high unemployment rate, no matter what else is happening. But this could be yet another rule of thumb proven obsolete by the dramatically changing economy.

Voters on Election Day will probably be much more influenced by whether they feel their own fortunes are improving than they will by the number that represents the unemployment rate. When Ronald Reagan got re-elected in 1984, the unemployment rate was 7.2 percent, then a record-high for a post-Depression president winning a second term. But the economy had been adding jobs for 20 straight months at that point, which created a tangible sense of things getting better. If the current string of job gains continues, Obama will have 26 straight months of job gains behind him, besting Reagan's run.

There's still a lot that could go wrong for Obama. Many economists expect a pullback in consumer spending in 2012, because spending in 2011 rose faster than income, which means shoppers used their credit cards more and drew down their savings. As they become more frugal in 2012, that's likely to slow the overall economy. A financial meltdown in Europe remains possible and could throw the U.S. economy back into recession. A showdown with Iran could cause an oil spike that pushes gas prices above $4 per gallon. And unforeseen shocks are always a possibility.

But we might finally be seeing a modest recovery that can sustain itself, without any more blood transfusions from the Federal Reserve or temporary subsidies from Congress. At least that's how Obama is likely to portray it. Voters, increasingly, may agree.

First, let me make one thing clear: This is a political thing, not a religious one. I know you're all heretics and deep down inside your very heart of hearts, you know it too. But let's put that aside for the moment and agree we've got to stop that non-observant mormon, big-government statist, babykilling elitist, and DeathLoving fraud Mitterand "MittCain" Romnoid from ensuring another four years of dictatorial power for that jug-eared jackass who's an even greater Lover of Death. [Heck, even a real mormon would be preferable. I could live with a federal ban on caffeine but I'm not prepared to put up with trapshooting with babies as the new national pastime.]

That's right, kiddies. You heard it here first. Mittens the Pompadoured Pussy will lose the general election so badly it will make his newest friend,Senator War Hero, look like a winner.

If you're a regular visitor to my neighborhood, you know I think the good ol' USA has been dead for a long, long time. But that doesn't mean our elections [if they are still free and fair, of course] don't matter. Bolshevik the Clown will kill millions. President Mittens will kill tens of thousands. And don't forget the untold number of souls lost to Hell under either of these geniuses.

We need Rick Santorum. Rick is a Catholic gentleman with only one wife and a passel of kids. His father was a lifelong coal miner. He's pro-life, pro-gun, anti-commie and anti-terrorist.

Sure, Mr. Santorum is a professional politician. But we the people are responsible for the fact we have a ruling political class in the land of the "free" and the home of the "brave".

Romnoid won't attack Emperor Haile Unlikely. Santorum will.

MittCain will be rightly seen as not that different from Insane Hussein Insaner. Santorum will revel in the contrast between himself and the ruling DeathLoving elite. [Just watch him in the upcoming primaries.]

The bottom line?

Defeating the DeathLovers and rolling back their culture of death [religious, economic, political, and everything] will take millions of small steps. Electing Rick Santorum president would be an obvious one.

There are times when divorce forces people to do strange things. Burn sheets. Throw out clothes. Toss rings into the ocean. But when you get $100 million in your divorce, you can trump just about anything and that's what happened with Tiger Woods' ex-wife when she bought a $12 million home and bulldozed the whole thing.

Yes, according to TMZ, Elin Nordegren bought a $12 million home in North Palm Beach, Fla., but didn't like it, and has plowed the whole thing.

The house, which had six bedrooms and eight bathrooms, is now just rubble, with no word yet on what is going to replace the beautiful building you see above, but I guess when you have nine figures in the bank, it doesn't really matter what you want.

I guess we can all applaud Elin on not rolling over after all this happened and continuing on with her life. But I think we can all agree on one thing: Why in the world is she still in Florida? Wouldn't you want to move back home for good?

The resignation of a Los Angeles bishop who fathered two children has shocked the nation's most populous Roman Catholic archdiocese, where Auxiliary Bishop Gabino Zavala grew up and was an outspoken supporter of causes dear to the huge Hispanic population.

Zavala, 60, who once urged Catholic media to report scandals such as clergy sex abuse "in a spirit of love and mercy," had his resignation accepted Wednesday by Pope Benedict XVI. Roman Catholic canon law permits bishops to step down earlier than the normal retirement age of 75 if they are sick or otherwise unfit for office.

"This is unexpected, sad and disorienting news for many people who know and like Bishop Zavala," archdiocesan spokesman Tod Tamberg said. "Remember, he was raised here. He has deep roots in Los Angeles and so he's very well-known here."

Tamberg said he knew nothing about Zavala's affair except that it involved consenting adults and that no church funds were used.

A message left at a Hacienda Heights telephone number for a Gabino Zavala was not immediately returned Wednesday.

Zavala was one of five auxiliary bishops in the archdiocese and was the primary pastoral and liturgical administrator for 66 churches in the San Gabriel region east of Los Angeles, Tamberg said. Archbishop Jose Gomez has selected someone to handle those duties until the Vatican can appoint a replacement.

Zavala informed the archbishop last month that he had fathered two children who live with their mother in another state, Gomez said in a letter to the archdiocese's approximately 5 million Catholics. The archbishop said Zavala told him that he had submitted his resignation to the pope.

"Since that time, he has not been in ministry and will be living privately," the archbishop said in the letter, which was posted on a Catholic blog.

Tamberg did not know the children's ages or gender but revealed that they are not twins — indicating Zavala and the woman had more than a passing relationship.

"The archdiocese has reached out to the mother and children to provide spiritual care as well as funding to assist the children with college costs. The family's identity is not known to the public, and I wish to respect their right to privacy," the archbishop wrote.

Roman Catholic priests are required to be celibate, though Eastern rite priests can be married and married Anglican priests who convert can become Catholic priests.

Zavala was born in Guerrero, Mexico, but grew up in Los Angeles. He was ordained in 1977 and was assigned to Our Lady of Guadalupe, a church in the heavily Mexican-American East Los Angeles area. He was appointed an auxiliary bishop in 1994.

In a June 2010 speech to the Catholic Media Association, Zavala spoke about the duty of Catholic media to "report the truth, because the truth does set us free," but with mercy and concern for individuals.

In his role as auxiliary bishop, Zavala spoke out in support of immigration rights and prison reforms, better conditions for the working poor and against the death penalty.

A handful of other priests have quit their post over sexual relationships, including: Florida priest Alberto Cutie, who resigned in 2009 and married his then-girlfriend; Auxiliary Bishop James McCarthy of New York, who resigned in 2002 after the archdiocese was alerted about his affairs with women; and Archbishop Robert Sanchez of Santa Fe, New Mexico, who resigned in 1993 after confessing relationships with women.

The late Archbishop Eugene Marino of Atlanta resigned in 1990 when his relationship with a parishioner was made public; the woman said she and the archbishop had secretly married.

Wednesday, January 04, 2012

No, kiddies, it's not "evolution in action". All you need to do is look up the definition of the word "species".

Heck, even the lamebrains who contribute to Wikipedia know this one:In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring.This is just a case of a few randy sharks gettin' some strange.

Hee-hee. "Hybrid". I wonder if it spontaneously combusts like the Chevy Volt...

Scientists said on Tuesday that they had discovered the world's first hybrid sharks in Australian waters, a potential sign the predators were adapting to cope with climate change.

...Give me a call when they walk out of the water, put on suits and ties, and start taking our jobs.

The mating of the local Australian black-tip shark with its global counterpart, the common black-tip, was an unprecedented discovery with implications for the entire shark world, said lead researcher Jess Morgan.

"Unprecedented discovery", kiddies, not "unprecedented event". Just because it's new to us, doesn't mean it's new to the sharks.

One needs to learn how to read and think critically...

"It's very surprising because no one's ever seen shark hybrids before, this is not a common occurrence by any stretch of the imagination," Morgan, from the University of Queensland, told AFP.

Sounds like a Science Nazi who preys on those who don't know how to think for themselves...

A young Oklahoma mother shot and killed an intruder to protect her 3-month-old baby on New Year's Eve, less than a week after the baby's father died of cancer.

Sarah McKinley says that a week earlier a man named Justin Martin dropped by on the day of her husband's funeral, claiming that he was a neighbor who wanted to say hello. The 18-year-old Oklahoma City area woman did not let him into her home that day.

On New Year's Eve Martin returned with another man, Dustin Stewart, and this time was armed with a 12-inch hunting knife. The two soon began trying to break into McKinley's home.

As one of the men was going from door to door outside her home trying to gain entry, McKinley called 911 and grabbed her 12-gauge shotgun.

"I've got two guns in my hand -- is it okay to shoot him if he comes in this door?" the young mother asked the 911 dispatcher. "I'm here by myself with my infant baby, can I please get a dispatcher out here immediately?"

The 911 dispatcher confirmed with McKinley that the doors to her home were locked as she asked again if it was okay to shoot the intruder if he were to come through her door.

"I can't tell you that you can do that but you do what you have to do to protect your baby," the dispatcher told her. McKinley was on the phone with 911 for a total of 21 minutes.

When Martin kicked in the door and came after her with the knife, the teen mom shot and killed the 24-year-old. Police are calling the shooting justified.

May God have mercy on his black, bloody soul.

"You're allowed to shoot an unauthorized person that is in your home. The law provides you the remedy, and sanctions the use of deadly force," Det. Dan Huff of the Blanchard police said.

Stewart soon turned himself in to police.

McKinley said that she was at home alone with her newborn that night because her husband just died of cancer on Christmas Day.

"I wouldn't have done it, but it was my son," McKinley told ABC News Oklahoma City affiliate KOCO. "It's not an easy decision to make, but it was either going to be him or my son. And it wasn't going to be my son. There's nothing more dangerous than a woman with a child."

President Barack Obama recess-appointed three members to the National Labor Relations Board on Wednesday, bypassing fierce opposition from Republicans who claim the agency has leaned too far in favor of unions

About Me

First of all, the word is SEX, not GENDER. If you are ever tempted to use the word GENDER, don't. The word is SEX! SEX! SEX! SEX! For example: "My sex is male." is correct.
"My gender is male." means nothing. Look it up.
What kind of sick neo-Puritan nonsense is this? Idiot left-fascists, get your blood-soaked paws off the English language. Hence I am choosing "male" under protest.